Peace and Conflict Resolution are the intersectionality of two academic disciplines, as well as the study of social justice.
Social justice, in contemporary politics, social science, and political philosophy, the fair treatment and equitable status of all individuals and social groups within a state or society. The term also is used to refer to social, political, and economic institutions, laws, or policies that collectively afford such fairness and equity and is commonly applied to movements that seek fairness, equity, inclusion, self-determination, or other goals for currently or historically oppressed, exploited, or marginalized populations.
In theoretical terms, social justice is often understood to be equivalent to justice itself, however that concept is defined. Many somewhat narrower interpretations conceive of social justice as being equivalent to or partly constitutive of distributive justice—that is, the fair and equitable distribution of social, political, and economic benefits and burdens. According to some interpretations, social justice also encompasses, among other conditions, the equal opportunity to contribute to and to benefit from the common good, including by holding public office (such readings are sometimes referred to as “contributive justice”). Other interpretations promote the stronger goal of equal participation by all individuals and groups in all major social, political, and economic institutions.
Social justice is both a theoretical concept and a practical ideal—an object of social-scientific and philosophical understanding and debate as well as a real-world goal of social and political reform movements. In general, practical ideals of social justice represent an attempt to realize a certain conception of social justice in a particular state or society. Accordingly, such ideals tend to vary with the historical and cultural circumstances in which they are pursued; they may also depend upon current social-scientific understandings of the institutions to be reformed, abolished, or created.